Introduction
“Mumbai railway station stampede kills at least 22” “Rush-hour crush on footbridge connecting two stations was triggered by falling concrete that caused panic!”
At least 22 people have been killed and more than 30 injured during a rush-hour stampede on a bridge between two railway stations in Mumbai.
The crush occurred on a narrow footbridge connecting Prabhadevi station, formerly Elphinstone, and Parel station during the Friday, September 29, 2017 morning commuter rush and amid heavy rain. “ ere was a huge crowd on the foot over bridge. Everybody tried to leave at once and it appeared one of them slipped and fell, triggering the stampede,” said an Indian Railways spokesman. Another spokesman said the number of people on the bridge was higher than usual because people were using the station to shelter from the rain.
The above incident throws some lights on how to be aware of the accidents we encounter in our daily walk of life.
Let us try to answer the following questions:
1. Which is more important life or the scheduled journey to be completed?
2. Why rushing in anything may be disastrous?
3. Why timely communication is more important to avoid accident?
The root of the word disaster (“bad star” in Greek and Latin) comes from an astrological theme in which ancients used to refer to the destruction of a star as a disaster.
Disaster is a serious disruption, causing damage or injury to people, buildings, roads, livelihoods, or the environment, which exceed the community’s ability to cope. T he magnitude and impact of disasters are increasing and disasters have disrupted social, economic and environmental community activities worldwide. International data shows that disasters have taken, over the last 10 years, more than 478,000 lives. It has affected 2.5 billion people and caused direct economic losses in the amount of 690 billion US dollars worldwide. Recent financial studies underline the urgent need for a shift from sole disaster response to disaster risk reduction. Therefore, efforts should be made to ensure that disaster risk reduction is an important aspect of poverty reduction and general development initiatives in the coming years.
